


Talon Gray Son

by ZennyFan825



Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Brainwashing, Court of Owls, DC comics - Freeform, Dick Grayson is Nightwing, Dick Grayson is a Talon, Gen, Haly's Circus, New 52, Night of the Owls, Talon!Dick, Traitor
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-07 12:13:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,248
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18620401
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZennyFan825/pseuds/ZennyFan825
Summary: Alternate to the New 52 Batman Court of Owls story. With the Court's sole purpose is to control Gotham but with Batman in the way, the court knew they needed their Gray Son to take back the city. But who's side is Dick really on?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first DC fanfic that is more a test run for another story I've been working on in my head for a few years... just never had the courage to post.  
> I'm a huge fan of the idea of Talon!Dick.  
> This story takes off 2011 #7 of Batman so I recommend reading the comic before this to get a better understanding.

“So they used the compound to bring him back from the dead to kill for them,” Nightwing says, summoning up all of what Batman has just told him of their recent captured Talon.“And his first target was his old trainer, the John Doe.After all, who needs the coach anymore when you can reanimate your star athlete? And his healing factor?”Nightwing takes a small step closer to the dead looking Talon in front of him and Batman.

Batman answers his question, “once the compound is bonded with the cells, they’re capable of reactivating and healing over and over.Which is why he was able to walk away from the fall of Wayne Tower.”

“And why he’s technically still alive right now.So how do you take him down?”As Batman explains that Talon’s aren’t immune to the cold, Nightwing takes a step back, standing next to the Dark Knight as he was before.“Do you have a name for him yet”

“Yes.His name is William Cobb” Batman answers but then turns to face Dick to see his reaction as he tells him “and he’s your great-grandfather.”

Nightwing freezes up on the spot right there, shocked at what he just heard but Batman turns around to the monitors, giving Dick a few seconds to process what he just heard.Dick shakes his head slightly and turns to Bruce’s direction looking baffled.

“My…my what?”

“I took a tissue sample, Dick,” he says straightforwardly in his common emotionless tone.

With Dick still looking shocked, “and what, you weren’t going to tell me?” He turns his back to Bruce realising “that’s why you wanted privacy?”

“That’s one part of it, yes.”He reads the numbers on the device he is holding, pointing at William.

Dick turns his head over his shoulder to look at Bruce, “and you’re not going to tell me the other part… but I think I already know it.”

Bruce puts down the device and looks at Dick with a raised eyebrow.Dick pulls out a small book and slowly hands it to Bruce.“I found this in the centre ring at Haly’s Circus.It contains William’s name…” Dick says as he approaches the counter on the side that contains the Talons gear. 

Batman opens the book and flips through the pages until he ends up on the page that contains the words, 'William Cobb’.“And on the last… is mine”, in those words Bruce flips further in the book to see clear as day that ‘Richard Grayson’ was written there.Bruce stays still, staring at the words on the page while facing the Talon.“I… I was supposed to become a Talon… wasn’t I?” The protector of Gotham didn’t move, only sighed, “yes.”

Dick turns around and walks over to stand behind Bruce. “You think your whole life you know everything about yourself, but then something comes along, showing you something that’s unbelievably true.”Dick takes another step closer to Bruce but he makes no sense of moving himself.“But the thing with these unbelievable truths us…”

That’s when Bruce felt it.  Red hot pain shooting at him from his right side, in between the blades of his armour… a spot of weakness not a lot of people know.  His body freezes, not fully clear of what happened to it.  He then feels a hand grab his left shoulder and a face lean closer to his right ear whispering, “you already know them.”

Batman’s instincts finally kicked in to turn around intending to attack the attacker but before he could even blink the weapon that’s logged into his side was removed and then slashed his back, ripping nearly half the cape in half.

His back arches and he falls to the ground on his stomach.With his body already beaten from his time in the Labyrinth, he couldn’t find the strength to get up so he lay there with his hand covering the freshly open wound.

The Dark Knight turns over to his uninjured side to try and get a sense of surroundings, a foot kicks him hard in the stomach making it difficult for him to get up for a few moments.He turns his head to get a good look at the assailant to see Dick standing over him, bloody Talon blade in his right hand and no emotion on his face.To see Nightwing, the most cheerful boy Bruce has ever met that has so much light in him, to see him looking at him with death in his eyes gave Bruce a deeper sense of dread that he has ever felt before.

Nightwing turns over to the frozen Talon and turns off the freezing system, followed by unlocking the restraints. 

Bruce very stiffly moves his right hand, which was covering his stomach, towards his utility belt.Before he could reach enough to grab something Nightwing sees his movement and throws the blade into his right shoulder which results in a painful yelp from Batman.

William starts to move.He begins to move his arm up to take off the rest of the restraints.Nightwing doesn’t take his eyes off Batman as he tells William, “get your gear back on and ready the motorcycle to get out of here once I’m done with Batman” in a cold tone.

William, finally removed from the restraints, takes a step forward.He looks at Dick for a few seconds before following what he was told and walked over to the counter and begins to put his gear back on.

Bruce takes in a slight breath which causes a slight coughing fit with the feeling of copper in his mouth.As he takes a second he finally speaks up.“W-why?”He looks up at Nightwing, waiting for an answer, but all he got was a sickening grin.

Nightwing moves towards Batman, “oh Bruce”, he begins, “it was always one of your downfalls, underestimating people, especially people you think you know so well”.He steps on Bruce’s wounded side, causing him to fall on his back.Dick then pins him down by sitting on his stomach, he then moves his right leg to pin Batman’s left arm between his leg.

Bruce breaths out in between grunts, “how long?”

“Oh, I’ve known about the courts' existence for quite some time, it was really all just the waiting game.I mean, how did they know you were going to be in the sewers that night investigating Alan Wayne’s death?” he answered as he grabs Bruce’s right arm to increase the pain by the blade logged in that shoulder.

“This…*grunt* isn’t you”.Batman tries to pull away from the former boy wonder but his body is too weak to push him off.

“And who said the Dick Grayson you knew was real?” He hisses.“Sorry Bruce, the years have been fun but it's time for me to for fill my purpose as the Gray Son of Gotham”.Dick pulls out the Talon blade from Bruce’s shoulder and lifts it above his head.

“Bruce Wayne…”

“…No”

“Batman…”

“No don’t…”

“The Court of Owls…”

“No please NO”

“Has sentenced you to die!”

“NO!”


	2. Chapter 2

Time slowed down.

As the blade goes down, aiming for his heart, all Bruce could do was to look at the emotionless killer eyes of the former boy wonder.  Dick Grayson. Nightwing.  Bruce only put the pieces together a few hours ago that Dick was meant to become a Talon, a killer, an assassin that did all the dirty work for the Court of Owls… but to see that he wasn’t just meant too, but already is their Talon. 

The blade gets closer to his chest he closes his eyes, not only waiting for what is about to happen but thinking about what is going to happen to the rest of the family.  Alfred, Barbara, Jason, Tim, Damian…Damian, his only just gotten the kid to loosen up around him.  He's probably going to be affected the most out of this.  Even if he's been around the least, he spent most of his life in Gotham with Dick.

Then Bruce is suddenly taken out of his thoughts as a loud bang fills the cave, followed closely by a scream.  Bruce opens his eyes to see that it was Dick, leaned forward close to his face, who screamed and has dropped the weapon next to him.

He takes no time in the confusion and uses every last bit of strength that he could muster to push Nightwing off him and set some space between the two.  Bruce turns over to look near the entrance of the cave to where the loud bang originated from to see non-other than Alfred standing at the bottom of the staircase holding a shotgun with smoke coming out of the end.  He moves his gaze back over to Dick to see blood dripping from his upper back right arm and shoulder. 

Nightwing is greeting his teeth in pain, his left hand goes up to grab his right shoulder, hoping to cover the wounds.  Even so, he gets on his two feet and places a defensive position, his gaze looking between Bruce and Alfred and remarks “loyal as ever, Alfred” under his breath.

Alfred takes a few steps away from the stairs but keeps his gun pointed at Dick.  Bruce gets up into a defensive position and coughs out “Alfred…” But the loyal butler quieted him.

“I know, sir.” That was all Bruce needed to hear that Alfred was as confused and hurt as much as he was.  “Master Richard, I highly suggest you stand down.” Alfred never calls Dick Richard unless it’s something serious.

It seemed that Dick could also hear the sad tone in the butler's voice because his only response was a sickening grin that belonged in Arkham. Nightwing opens his mouth to say something but the cave fills with the sound of an engine roar this time.  The three men turn their heads to the garage section of the cave to see Talon Cobb on Nightwing’s bike, waiting to escape the cave.

Bruce and Alfred turn their heads back to Dicks direction to him ready to jump for it.  He gives them a witty grin, “till next time then.”  With that he grabs a batarang from his belt with his left hand and throws it at Alfred which makes contact with the buyer's hand that is holding the trigger, causing him to aim the gun up and fire above Nightwing into the cave’s roof.  

Nightwing runs towards the garage but Batman jumps in front, going for a punch but is stopped by Nightwing pushing that fist in a different direction then jumps on Bruce’s shoulders to jump over the Dark Knight. Batman falls to the ground from this move but gets up only quick enough to see Dick jump on the back of the bike and yell “go GO!” To the talon.

Alfred runs over to Bruce’s side and fires at the moving bike but misses.  The motorbike disappears out of the cave to leave Bruce and Alfred in dazed silence.

Batman gets up and heads towards the Batmobile but collapses before he could take two steps.  Alfred moves down to the dark knight's side and places his right arm over his own shoulder, to allow Batman to keep his left hand on his bleeding side wound and directs him to the medical wing but Bruce weakly attempts to shove him off, “no… have to… get… Dick”.

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy updates! This chapter came a lot sooner than normal!

Bruce slowly wakes up in the medical wing of the cave. He can hear voices on the other side of the closed door but they were too mumbled for the billionaire to understand.

Then the closed door bursts open and incomes, Damian, in his Robin suit, stomping towards the head of the bed. He is quickly followed by Alfred, along with Barbara, Jason and Tim.

“Master Damian, let Master Bruce wake up in his own time,” Alfred says in a hushed toned.

Damian replied in a huff while stopping at Bruce’s head, “Don’t bother Pennyworth, Father is already awake.” He turns his attention to Bruce, “which is perfect timing as now you can tell the others that Pennyworth is wrong and Grayson isn’t a traitor”.

Bruce looks around the room before sighing and says, “Alfred is telling the truth”.

Everyone, besides Alfred, froze and stared wide-eyed at Bruce. “WHAT?!” Damian shouts, “Father you have to be wrong! Grayson is one of the most loyal heroes that exist, he would rather be dead than become a villain!” 

While Damian is continuing on his rant, Jason, who is standing behind Tim, leans over to him and asks, “is the demon brat actually saying nice things about someone?”

Tim leans back and replies “Never thought I see the day”

“Stop.” At those words, Damian stopped talking and everyone’s attention went back the Bruce. The Dark Knight sits up from the bed and takes a deep breath ready to tell the whole story. He tells them about his research on the Court of Owls, the attempt assassination and his capture in the Labyrinth.

“I discovered that the talon that attacked me was William Cobb, who is Dick’s Great-Grandfather. This meant that Dick was the heir to the Talon, their leader of the assassin army if you will. The thing is they normally take talons when they are around pre-teen or young teen to begin their training. Once they have become an adult they complete the final trial and if they pass they become undead talons.” Bruce sighing once more looks down and confesses, “I thought that because I took him in before they could grab him, he was safe from that path, their control… I was wrong.” He looks up at everyone. “We need to believe that he could have been working for them for years”

Everyone was at a lost for words. No one was sure how to respond to the info just given to them. Their colleague, trusted friend, a beloved brother and loving son have been lying to them for who knows how long.

Barbara steps forward and breaks the silence, “What do you need us to do?”

Bruce begins to stand up from the bed, opposite from Damian but closest to Alfred, giving the butler the chance to help him stand. “From now on I need all of you to stay extra vigilant. I’m not quite sure what the Court plans are but I have a feeling it's going down tonight.”

Tim pipes up, “What makes you say that?”

Bruce turns to him, “Dick told me, he was in a rush to get rid of me and when that didn’t work, he quickly escaped. Also I never even suspected him working for the Court but he made his move which means something is definitely happening tonight.”

Everyone nodded and made their way to their vehicle to head out. As everyone was moving Bruce made his way over to Jason, the former second Robin sensed that Bruce wanted to talk to him and didn’t head out to leave yet, despite how much he wanted to.

“Look”, Jason starts quickly before Bruce could say anything, “I only came because Alfred called an emergency for me to come. I don't want any lecture on ‘no killing’ right now.”

“Actually” Bruce stops Jason. He looks at the others as one by one they zoom out of the cave. “I have a different task I need from you”. Jason raises is eye-brow but listens to what Bruce is asking of him.

 

* * *

Deep underground, in the Talon lab that belonged to the Court of Owls, Dick Grayson slowly gained conciseness after being treated and fully healed from his injuries.

He sits up and begins to remove the multiple tubes that are filled with black liquid from his arms and chest.As he begins to take out the second tube, the doors to the lab open to reveal a man and a woman dressed in medical gear and wearing the known Court of Owls mask.

They step to the side of the door and hold it open as two more people enter.The first one was William Cobb, fully healed and armoured up in his Talon gear.The last one to enter was non-other than the Grand Master himself, wearing his expensive suit with the hooded cape and owl mask on.

The two medical assistance put their right hand to cover their chest and bowed in respect to the Grand Master, Dick did the same thing but stayed sitting on the medical bed.

The Grand Master bowed his head slightly in return and everyone stood up straight, he turned to Dick and slowly moved forward.“It is so great for you to finally be with us, Gray Son!” He says in a friendly manner.

Dick looks up and displays a slight grin, “as am I Grand Master”.

The leader of the Court turned to the medical assistance, “help him remove the tubing”.The two assistance quickly moved over to either side of Dick and continued where he left off in removing them.

While the assistance is doing that Dick looks over at a wall mirror to his right and sees himself. His skin is slightly paler than normal with grey, not black like the other talons, vines covering his body. With cloths, a person would most likely not see it but his eyes, his sky blue eyes colour is still the same but the white of the eyes is black instead.

Once the assistance has complete the job, William steps forward and speaks up, “We have activated your electrum but not completely, as you know it takes a few days for a talon to be fully reborn and also given that you haven’t completed your final task to become one of us.”

Dick scolds as his being reminded of his recent failure earlier the day.

“Do not fret young hatchling,” The Grand Master intervenes, “The Night of the Owls rises tonight and thanks to the information you have provided to us you will have the chance to complete your destiny!”

Dick smiled at the sound of it. After all this time he will finally be who he was meant to be since he was born, The Gray Son of Gotham.

The Grand Master continues on his monologue. “The other talons are finishing waking up and preparing for the night, waiting for your orders Gray Son to take back our city.”

Dick gets up from the table and stands in front of the Grand Master. “Any sightings of the other vigilantes?”

“Yes, they appear to be scattered across the entire city, scouting it looks like.”

“How long until we are good to go?”

“Soon, very soon. We have your suit and gear ready to dress in the other room, after that we should be good to fly.” Dick grins and heads his way out the room but the Grand Master steps to the side to be in front of Dick once again. “But before we do that I need you to tell me one thing before you leave” The traitor is sure what the Grand Master is going ask but waits for the question anyway.

“What are their names?”

“Who’s names?”

“All the members in the bat clan. Who are they?" The Grand Master takes an eager step forward, "who is Batman?”

Dick smiles up at the leader in the same sickening grin he gave to Bruce back in the cave.

 


End file.
